The Calm Before the Storm
by Whitetorch
Summary: Six year old Naruto couldn't take it anymore, the hate finally broke her. She stood atop the Yondaime's head to write her final words to the only person who cared about her, 'I'm sorry Jiji' with that she tucked the small note into her ripped apart orange jacket and jumped. The current Hokage watched in horror as he saw the orange body falling from the cliff down to ground below.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I don't own anything, I wouldn't like to anyways. Criticism is welcome, hate is not, but say what you wish.

-/ Hokage tower /-

A red and white hat fell to the floor next to the tired man. Sighing as he placed another ANBU report back onto his desk to reach for the hat. Placing it back on his head he decided to have a break from his seemingly endless work, he headed towards the roof of the hokage building. A cool breeze blew through the door as he walked out into the crisp October air. It was late in the evening Konohagakure, sun slowly setting towards the horizon he looked up towards the stone monument dedicated towards his predecessors. More specifically, his successor the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze, '_I should have taken your place that night Minato, She has gone through so much.._.' The anniversary of that fateful night was today, many villagers we're celebrating the downfall of the Kyūbi. Most of the villagers were loud in cheers while the shinobi of the villagers were remembering the lives sacrificed on that night, six years ago.

'_She already asked me if she can join the Academy, you would be so proud of her._' turning back away from the village to look back up at the person he was thinking only to see something of his worst than a nightmare "No..." he whispered out loud into the fading daylight.

-/ Yondaime's head /-

A weeping blond stood on the monument of her hero, tattered and torn orange jumpsuit covered the broken body of the young girl, the 'demon' of the village. Today was the last, the day that finally broke her undying spirit she couldn't take the hateful glares, the beatings, the loneliness any longer. She stepped towards the edge of head looking down towards the rocky cliff below, elongated shadows of the village were cast upon the rocky face, only making the bottom seem like an endless void that welcomed her sorrows. With her final moment, she tucked the letter to her grandfather figure in the pocket of her jacket and jumped of the head of her father, although she would never know. The cold air biting at her skin as she fell towards the ground only to be engulfed in the shadows below, all her thoughts ended with a sickening thud as the now lifeless body lie on the cold ground.

The nearby bushes parted as the hokage came into the shadowed clearing below the monument. Falling on his knees in despair he looked at the broken body before him, tears blocking his vision as he never noticed blood from the body slowly returning to it's owner. "I was too late..." said the weeping hokage, "Hokage-sam-" the man's question was cut off when he looked at the broken body that lie before the hokage. "No, this can't be happening..." said the Inu-ANBU he slowly walked over to the hokage and put a hand on his shoulder only to find his own knees no longer able to hold himself up. The two men slowly picked up the broken, cold, lifeless body of the girl before them to bring to the hospital, wishing it was all just a nightmare.

-/ Unknown Sewers /-

Red slit eyes glowed in the darkness of the sewers, the beast slowly moved towards the bars he was held behind to look down upon the broken blond before him '_**This chill...**_' he looked around only to see the light slowly fading around him, '_**This isn't right**_' the beast through as he looked back down at the young girl before him only to see how lifeless the body seemed "**No, NO!**" the beast bellowed as he smashed his claws against the cage that held him back. One of the tails of the beast reached towards the girl to bring it inside the cage "**Do not do this to me kit,**" setting the lifeless body upon him he slowly wrapped his tails up close to his body to heat the poor girls body in hope of stopping her from going into an endless sleep. '_**Its the only way...**_' the beast thought as he felt the cold and darkness slowly inch around his body. "**I'm sorry kit, this will only cause you more trouble, I'm sorry for being selfish with my own desires to save my life, I only hope you can one day forgive me for what I am going to do.**" with his final words he slowly closed his eyes as he felt some of his power leaving his body into the girl before him, one of the nine tails that wrapped around the girl slowly shimmered into non-existence as he felt the cold and darkness slowly moving away from him. He closed his eyes as he pulled the body of the girl closer to her before slowly drifting into sleep.

-/ Konoha hospital /-

The Hokage and an ANBU sat at the bed of the blond girl before them, the machines hooked up to her all were pointing at the same thing. She was dead. The two men in the room were saying their goodbyes to the loving girl they once knew, only to be pushed into their own depression when they realized how much more they should have done for the girl but when they both looked back upon the girl's peaceful face the hokage stood up, "I think we should let the village know who they just pushed into suicide, they should feel the regret of what they did to one of their greatest heros."

"Understood Hokage-sama." replied the ANBU in a saddened tone still looking upon the face of his sensei's daughter. "However, first we must tell the council and ANBU, they should be first to know seeing how much they mistreated her as well."

"I will gather them now, If you wish." the hokage replied with a simple incline of his head and the ANBU agent disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Leaving the hokage alone in the room with her granddaughter-figure, he looked down at her torn jacked so see a small slip of paper sticking out of the front pocket. Noticing it, he pulled it out of the jacket only to look upon what was scribbled on the piece of paper, three simple words were written on it:

_I'm sorry Jiji._

Letting the tears fall freely, he slowly leaned over and kissed the girl on the forehead, "I'm the one who is sorry, Naruto." with that, he slowly gathered his remaining strength to leave

-/ Hokage Tower, large meeting room /-

The room quickly filled with the ANBU that were not on current watch and the councilmen on the guise that it was an important meeting. Quickly filling the room until they were all there the hokage stood before the crowd, unanswered quickly filled the room as murmurs began to erupt, but they were silenced as soon as the hokage began speaking, "ANBU and councilmen of konoha, I have gathered you here today to reveal an S-class secret that involves most of you, however the one who was truly affected is no longer with us," Murmurs became louder as they were wondering why this was brought up, one of the ANBU final broke the constant questions to ask the hokage, "Why now?" the hokage seemed to age a couple of years as he slowly began losing his strength, his tight lips fell into a small frown and his eyes dulled with sadness at the what he was about to say, "Because, the last person truly affected by this secret died today, seeing it would do no harm to reveal it now, I decided you should at least share some of my grief"

"Who?" another ANBU asked. The hokage took in a large breath before sighing to what he was he was going to say, "Naruto Uzumaki," the murmurs grew louder before a council member erupted in happiness shouting "The demon is dead!" the man, however, was quickly shut up by the god of shinobi "ENOUGH!" he fumed as silence filled the room, "Naruto Uzumaki was not a demon, she was the sole daughter of the Yondaime" everyone in the room stared in shock at the hokage as he revealed the secret while he was fuming with rage about the comment of his granddaughter figure. Soon after an ANBU wearing a cat mask spoke up, "How did she die?" the sadness was apparent in her voice but no one bothered to speak up about it. Luckily, her mask shielded her tears from the view of the rest of the members in the room.

A single tear rolled down the hokage's cheek as he Answered the ANBU, barely loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, "she took her own life an hour ago by jumping off the hokage monument." Everyone was shocked, they knew how loud mouthed that girl was, she was a troublemaker who always had a silly grin on her face, no one expected that she would take her own life. As soon as the shock died down they people in the room realized why they have been told this information the daughter of their hero was treated so badly, her only choice of escaping the pain was taking her own life at such a young age. One emotion filled the room as everyone felt it: Regret. They tried to think of anything they could do that could do but those thoughts were quickly interrupted by the doors being broken open by a medic who clearly ran all the way from the hospital. They all looked upon the medic with confusion in their eyes and as quickly as the medic entered the room their confusion was gone after they heard what the medic had to say, "Hokage-sama, She's alive!" Every shinobi who heard that quickly had the same reaction and the room was quickly filled with swirl of leaves as the civilian council members ran out towards the exit of the building.

-/ Hospital, room 275 /-

Hiruzen opened the door to the hospital room to find Naruto sitting up in her bed looking out the window at the full moon, her fox ears twitched upwards upon hearing the door open, '_wait, fox ears?_' the hokage took a double take at the young girl before him it was the same girl, tattered and torn orange jacket and sunny blond hair with crimson tips, '_no, I'm pretty sure that was not there before_' he thought as he looked at crimson tail waving back and forth in the dark. The girl turned her head towards the old man, violet slit eyes slowly shifted back to bight ocean blue and bore into his own brown, tears still running down her cheeks as she looked at him. Her ear drooped down as she looked at him and finally croaked out, "I'm sorry Jiji." with a broken voice he walked over to the young girl and took brought her into a hug, "No, its not your fault Naruto, I'm the one who should be sorry." He let the tears fall down his cheeks as she cried into his white and red robes. After a short while he broke the hug upon hearing her breathing slow down and noticed she fell asleep. He put he down onto the hospital bed and brought the blanket up to her chin before kissing her on the forehead and exiting the room.

ANBU and Council Members waited patiently outside the room in the dimmed hallway. The Inu-ANBU quickly was the first to ask, "How is she?" the worry obviously clouding his voice, "Shes fine, but she is sleeping now, so I will make this brief, her lineage is now an SS-class secret, if one of you ever mentions a word of it without express permission from me you will be executed on the spot. Her father had too many enemies for us to give away information like that, and we don't want to lose our last connection to two great clans." everyone in the hallway nodded obediently. "Good, additionally, we cannot suddenly treat her like royalty, so, instead just treat her as any other civilian, or if you wish, show a little kindness of your heart, but not too much that makes others suspicious of your behavior, last thing we need it iwa spies returning to their village with word of the yellow flash's heir." Once again, the people there nodded obediently as they obeyed their hokage. "Then this meeting is adjourned, ANBU return to your posts and have a good night. I have some paperwork to finish." The ANBU quickly dispersed with their shushin leaving the hospital janitors to once again clean up the leaves that they always leave behind, one would think they could just shushin without leaving leaves behind...

-/ Sewers, Location unknown. /-

Naruto cried on the back of the great beast below her, "**Hush now kit, all is well, I will be here for you when others won't. Please get some rest, you will need it for what comes next**" The girl nodded as she hugged one of the eight tails of the beast below her, breathing slowed down as she finally drifted into her dreams. The Kyūbi slowly lifted her off of his back and into one of his arms before slowly shifting into the shape of a human. One with spiked blonde hair and a white cloak with kanji on the back reading "_Yondaime Hokage_" he placed her onto the floor before walking over to the broken seal of the cage that held the Kyūbi, and fixing it to a new one that he developed only moments ago. '_Thank you Kurama_'

'_**To you too, you freed me from that cursed eye, I finally have my memories back, but you know when time comes, you need to talk to her.**_'

'_I only wish it can come sooner, but she is too young, we must wait before revealing the truth to her, Madara must be stopped._' Minato replied with their mind link. '_**I'd never thought I would work with another human since the death of my father, but I'm glad for what you did.**_'

Minato nodded at the Kyūbi's word while putting down the finishing touches of the seal. '_I'm done here, keep her safe Kurama, I'll be watching_'

'_**Oh, I know you will.**_' he chuckled as Minato slowly shifted back into the form of the great fox. Lifting the girl up as he put her on his back and the mindscape slowly changed into a vast meadow with wind blowing at the tall grass that shined from the moon's light. The fox closed its violet eyes and slept with his new kit.

- / A/N note /-

Horray! first chapter done, I was really bored in one of my classes today and I had this idea for a story, I have planned out a lot of it, but some areas still have holes, but they will be filled along the way. First thing I will mention, every enemy in this story is are going to be really evil and also be a lot more powerful, I'm trying to be realistic here, and Naruto will get a boost in strength, but also a couple weaknesses to go along with them. With that said, review and tell me what you think. I'll be posting chapters whenever I get the chance to right them ヾﾉ｡ÒㅅÓ)ﾉｼ so they'll be randomly updated for now. (=^-ω-^=)

じゃね～


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I don't own anything, I wouldn't like to anyways. Criticism is welcome, hate is not, but say what you wish. Thanks for the reviews everyone (๑ᴗ๑)

Chapter 2

-/ Konoha Hospital, room 275 /-

The room door opens as the Hokage walks into the room of the young girl, "Happy birthday, Naruto" he greets the young blonde. Said girl turned away from the window to face him, ocean blue eyes still seemed to be dulled from her own sadness, but upon hearing those words it seemed to gain some of their own shine back as a small smile set across her face,

"I never noticed it last night, but you don't have your whisker marks anymore..."

"Instead I have a tail." the old Hokage gave a hearty chuckle at the response, "Ears too." but the girl just looked at him like he grew another head but that soon went away when she placed a hand on top of her own head. The confused look turned back into a sad one as she suddenly found the blankets more interesting, "Now they'll really think I'm some demon..." she mumbles with sadness and fear etching into her voice.

"You look more like a cute little fox than some demon," he said walking over to bed and sitting next to the blonde, placing a firm and reassuring hand on her shoulder, "and you also look like you need a birthday present." She looked back at the Hokage to notice he had pulled out a white dress with violet flowers printed across it. A smile grew back across her face as she looked at the gift, "Its pretty," she turned to her grandfather figure to bury her face into his robes, "Thank you Jiji." She mumbled as tears soaked into the Hokage robes. He accepted the hug and gave her a small pat on the head, "You're welcome."

Ending the hug to look back at the old man, "Hey Jiji, how much longer do I have to stay here in the hospital? it smells weird." He laughed at her comment before noticing he couldn't smell a thing, '_Did the fox also increase her senses? I'll just file it as a bloodline for now_' "I'll go talk to the doctor to find out." he replied. Lifting himself off of the bed and moving towards the door he turned back to notice Naruto's attention already focused on some birds in the nearby tree, chirping their morning song. With a smile he turned back and opened the door to go find the doctor, nodding to the ANBU on guard as he closed the door and made his way down the hallway.

A couple of turns and stairs later he found the one he was looking for and grabbed their attention, "Hokage-sama, what can I do for you?"

"Little naru was wondering when she could leave, could you give me the details of her healing?"

"Most of her bones were broken from the impact, but they seem to be recovering at an extraordinary fast pace, I suspect she will be ready to well enough to leave in a week or two..." he trailed off before starting to look worried. Noticing the Hokage continues, "But?" the doctor took a breath, "but, her chakra network suffered some permanent damages, from the looks of it she will have trouble molding chakra to use into various jutsus, but nothing that she can't learn to work around. In addition, it seems that her chakra levels have almost halved since her last check up." Taking a pause before continuing, "and she will need a psychiatrist assigned to her for weekly evaluations and check-ups." Hiruzen nodded to this, he expected her needing a psychiatrist and already asked Inoichi if he would be willing to, but he did not expect the chakra network damages, "Thank you sensei, I'll go talk to her now then."

"My pleasure Hokage-sama." he said with a small smile before taking his leave with a bow.

Sliding the door open he saw Naruto still looking out the window, tail waving back in forth, '_She really doesn't like it here._' Her ears perked up upon hearing the door opening, Naruto turned to face the man coming into the room with a questioning look as her tail slowly wrapped around her waist, "The doctor said you should be able to leave within a week or two," he told the girl as he walked over to sit down in the chair next to the bed, "But you will have to see someone weekly for, who will check up on your health." Her ears dropped down as a frown came across her face, '_I have to come here every week!?_' she mentally screamed at that fact with a sigh she shrugged "I guess I'll be getting use to this place then." Hiruzen realized what she was talking about before replying, "Oh no, you'll be going to his house for check ups. He also has a daughter your age so maybe you can become friends." With a pat on the head, he got up to leave, "I have to go back to work now, I'll stop by tomorrow."

"Ok Jiji" she smiled as he placed a kiss on her forehead before leaving the room.

-/ Konoha Hospital, Room 275, one and a half weeks after the incident /-

Naruto put on her new dress in front of the mirror, '_I finally get out of here!I can't wait to go eat Ichiraku's!_' she thought as she happily jumped up and down before looking at her dress. In her excitement she barely noticed the light knock on the door, "Come in," she called out watching the door open to reveal a girl roughly her age with bright blonde hair and blue-green eyes, "Are you Naruto?" The girl in question nodded, and then she walked into the room, "My name is Ino, my dad asked me to go meet you while he filled out some paperwork for your." Naruto nodded once again as a reply, but Ino took a look at the top of her head, "YOU HAVE KITTY EARS!" she screeched running over to the poor girl she just unintentionally harmed. "Can I touch them?" the girl asked with a pleading look in her eyes, sighing and admitting defeat, Naruto lowered her head for Ino to play with her ears. The girl reached out to pet them only to gasp, "They're so soft!" giggling as she continued to pet them. Naruto was simply dumbfounded at the girl's outwards personality but soon shrugged it off liking the attention, "They're actually fox ears, Ino" The mention girl turned to her father and blushed a little realizing her error, "Sorry Naruto." she apologized as she removed her hand from the fox girl's head, "I see you've met my daughter, Ino" the man walked over to Naruto and stuck out his hand, ""My name is Inoichi, and I'll be your psychiatrist for the next couple of months."

"Nice to meet you Inoichi-san" Naruto said with a small smile, the man chuckled at the response, "No need to be so formal Naruto, just call me Inoichi"

Finaly exiting the hospital, Naruto's expression was priceless. She could smell everything, the flowers that filled the yard to the restaurants that filled the streets, she could hear the birds chirping in the trees with their evening songs and the kids playing in the park down the road. It was like she was able to hear and smell for the first time all over again. Inoichi paused noticing they were missing a member, turning back to the fox girl with a stunned expression on her face worried him, "You alright Naruto?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, It just feels like I can hear and smell all over again!" The man smiled hearing she was okay, "The Hokage mention that you have a rare bloodline so im guessing its your first time outside since it has awakened?" The girl was dumbfounded, '_I have a bloodline!? Jiji never told me that!_' she thought inwardly as she rubbed the back of her head with a cheesy grin on her face "Yeah, I forgot about that..." hearing a bloodline being mention grabbed Ino's quickly grabbed Ino's attention "what's the bloodline?" Inoichi turned back to answer her daughter, "The Hokage told me little Naru here as a rare bloodline, giving her fox like attributes. We don't havemuch information on it at the moment though." Ino looked back to her new friend with surprise, "Thats so cool!" she squealed as she nearly tackled Naruto with a hug. "and really cute." she started laughing watching Naruto's face turn bright red at the comment. Walking by a grassy hill Ino's attention was suddenly grabbed by two boys lying on the grass. One slowly munching away on a bag of chips and the other staring lazily off into the clouds. "Hey guys" she said walking over to them bringing Naruto with her, "Hey Ino, who's your friend?" the one eating stopped to ask. Hearing Ino and friend being used in the same sentence when both Choji and himself were already present spiked Shikamaru's attention. Finally having enough energy to spend lifting himself up to look at the newcomer, only one thing crossed his mind when he saw her: '_Those ears are really cute_'

"This is Naruto," Ino introduced her fellow blonde, the quieter boy nodded before introducing himself, "Nice to meet you, my name is Shikamaru, and my friend here is Choji." The munching boy nodded a thanks to his friend for allowing himself to keep engulfing himself with mouthwatering barbeque chips. However, it was short lived as he realized one of the mistakes he made earlier that day, "Oh, Ino, were you going to come with us to Dinner tonight? I already told my dad you were by accident." the blonde in question shook her head, "No, im going out with my mother tonight." seeing this as an opportunity, the pinapple haired boy came up with an idea, "well, we still have a spot," he said turning his attention to Naruto, "would you like to join us and our dads? I'm sure they would enjoy the company" Shikamaru questioned the girl, a frown fell across her face, "I'm sure they'll just kick me out like the rest of the restaurants." she muttered, "Nonsense!" Inoichi said from behind the two girls, "The Akimichi's would gladly accept you into their restaurant. "Yeah, my parents wouldn't do something like that!" Choji encouraged the girl. Placing a hand on the girl's shoulder Inoichi reassured her, "You'll be welcome there little Naru, and I'm going there too, so we can walk together to the restaurant." hearing all the welcoming arms put doubts on her previous thoughts, '_I guess if I'm going with someone they might let me in._' "Sure, I'll go then."

Saying their goodbyes to the boys the continued their way to Yamanaka household. Upon arriving at the house the older man looked over to the sun that was setting against the horizon, "Well, since its already getting this late why don't we just talk on the way over to the restaurant, seeing how little time we have before meeting up with the rest of the gang." Naruto nodded and said her goodbyes to Ino as she left with her father to the restaurant.

-/ Akimichi Barbeque /-

Inoichi arrived at the restaurant in a decent time, a little bit later than scheduled but it mattered not. They were welcomed with the smell of spices, sauces, and meats being cooked on grills. They quickly found their place in the quiet corner of the building, coincidentally right next to the kitchen, and by the time they all sat down Naruto was too busy drooling over the smells to notice her position between Shikamaru and Choji. But her heavenly thoughts of food were interrupted with the two new older men grabbing her attention when they introduced themselves, "I'm Shikaku Nara, its a pleasure to finally meet you Naruto, the Hokage talks a lot about you." he said with a large, yet some how lazy, smile before the next made his introduction, "And I'm Akimichi Chouza, and Choji told me what you said earlier, and I simply reply: That will never happen! I refuse to let a wonderful girl such as yourself go without the wonders of good food!" The other men laughed at their friend's reply. With a small bow, to respect her elders she replied, "It is a pleasure to meet you too, Nara-san, Akimichi-san." Inoichi simply let out another one of his hearty laughs, "now now little Naru, we're all friends here, no need to be so stiff and formal! As a toast to your newfound friends I'll pay for the night." suddenly three members of the table had the same thought as their mouths began to drool all over again, '_FREE FOOD!_'

Many laughs, minutes, and dishes later, one man was paying his respects to his wallet as the others were saying their goodbyes, "Hey Naru, want to hang out with me and Choji tomorrow?" Her face lit up at the thought of hanging out with her new friends, with a tail excitedly waving back and forth behind her she nodded, "I'd like that." she said before saying goodbye once again to make her way back to her apartment.

-/ a Konoha playground, the next day /-

"Naruto!" Choji yelled out to the girl aproching the park, ears perked up as she heard the boy, turning and quickly running over to them she greeted with her warm smile, "Hi guys, so what do you want to do today?" Naruto asked. "I was thinking we could go play ninja with the others in the park." agreeing to the idea the trio walked over to the group of kids that were already formed, waving over to them the leader walked up to the trio to see what they wanted, "Can we play ninja with you guys?" The leader looked at the trio and responded quickly, "You two can, she can't." Gaining confidence from her friends' presence, she decided to speak up to voice her own anger, "Why not?!"

"Because you look like a freak! You fox-weirdo!" the other children 'yeah'-ed in agreement which only gave the leader confidence enough to shove the girl down. A sudden recall of memories flooded her mind as she hit the ground, images of angry villagers flashed before her eyes as she instinctively brought her knees into her chest and put her hands over her head to protect them. "What was that for?" Shikamaru asked angrily, ignoring them he turn to the rest of his followers, "lets get away from these fox-loving weirdos." he said leading the group away from them. Noticing the girl still shaking Shikamaru put a hand on her shoulder, "You ok Naru?" he worriedly asked, she took her hands off her head to look up at him, tears streaming down her cheeks before shaking her head no. "C'mon, lets go somewhere else." the Nara-boy suggested as he left a hand out to pick Naruto up. Leading them over to his favorite cloud watching spot, Shikamaru lied down on the grass still holding onto the girl's hand as she went down next to him. Choji pulled out two bags of chips and handed one to the girl, "Thanks Choji" she said before placing it at her side. Closing her mind to try and get rid of some of her thoughts about the villagers but was soon somewhere else entirely before she knew it.

-/ Moonlit Meadow, Location unknown /-

Naruto suddenly found herself in a vast meadow lit by a large full moon, looking around to try and get some sense of her bearings but it was worthless as it seemed the tall grass went on for miles with no ends. "**Ahh, I finally get to talk to you kit.**" Hearing the deep voice from behind her she slowly turned around to a nightmare, right before her was the demon that almost destroyed the village 7 years ago, "**Worry not kit, I bring you know harm**"

"Are you real?" she simply asked, wondering if she was dreaming. "**Yes, very much so, I am the great Kyūbi no kitsune, well, more like hachibi**" he chuckled as he admitted it. "Why eight tails?" now, she was really confused, this was the real Kyūbi, but why was it talking to her? "**Thats a simple answer, I gave you one of my tails so you could live when you took an attempt of your own life, because if you die, so do I.**" he paused before continuing, "**So, out of my own selfish desire to keep on living I prevented your death and granted you some of my power, but I broke the seal in the process, which caused something else to happen.**" now interested in the full story she let him continue, "**The break in the seal caused the other part of me to come out.**" Naruto watched as the large beast slowly shrink down to the size of a human, more specifically, one of Naruto's greatest hero's the Yondaime Hokage. "Me." Minato said to his daughter, '_I hate you kurama_' the beast just laughed inside his head and aggravated Minato through their mind link, '_I hate not being able to tell her I'm her father, it is too early_' Naruto was simply dumbfounded by the chain of events, but one question was still bugging her, "So what does that have to do with me?"

"When I fought the Kyūbi I knew I had no way of killing it so, I did the only thing I knew would work, sealing him inside of a newborn but when I used the kinjutsu to seal him inside of you instead of my life being sacrificed I was sealed inside of you with him. However, I my soul was not active at the time, it was in a frozen state until the time where the seal weakened I would be stuck like that. So when Kurama, the Kyūbi broke the seal when you were dieing I came out to fix it, but my spirit merged with him." Naruto, who was hanging on the edge of a rope over a cliff listening to this story was trying to piece everything together bit by bit. "So the reason why everyone hated me was because I have the Kyūbi inside of me?" she realized. "Yes, in a sense, but remember Naruto. You are not the demon, you simply hold him inside of you. But it seems like our time is up for now, your friend just woke up, you should thank him for earlier." Naruto nodded as the landscape slowly faded to black.

-/ Shikamaru's cloud watching spot /-

"Hey Shika," Naruto asked the boy next to him, "Yeah?" he asked turning his attention away from the nonexistent clouds he thought he was watching to the girl. "Thanks for earlier." He smiled at her, "you're welcome." Turning back to look up at the sky to look for more clouds only to notice that it was filled with stars instead '_did I fall asleep?_' he laughed at his own lack of knowledge before sitting up and noticing his mother was walking towards him, "troublesome" he muttered as Naruto sit up with him, still yet to notice the woman approaching them, "what is?" he was about to answer before he was cut off before the woman in front of them, "Shika, what are you doing out so late?" she asked while walking up to the two people only to notice that one of them was a girl and her hand was still being held by Shikamaru, "Oh, if you we're with your girlfriend, why didnt you say so." both of them turned bright red as they turned to face away from the woman, "I should introduce myself, I'm Yoshino, Shika's mother."

"Nice to meet you Yoshino-san, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, Shika's friend." she muttered still bright red, Yoshino smiled at the two children before her '_I wish I had my camera right now_' she thought. "Oh I know, Naru-chan, would you like to join us for dinner?" the woman asked before Shikamaru whispered to her, "She won't take no for an answer, so just say yes." when the girl nodded to the woman she could not resist herself and ran over to hug the girl.

-/ Nara Clan building /-

Shikaku welcomed Naruto into his home with open arms, before Shikamaru started getting embarassed from his mother already showing her baby pictures, and dragged her over to the side walkway, "Do you know how to play Shogi?" he asked her. "Yeah, I read about it in the library before they kicked me out, "You want to play a game?" he asked pulling over the game board, "Sure." A few minutes later a girl saying "Yes! I won." and a dumbfounded Shikamaru caught Shikaku's attention, walking over to watch the next game only to be surprised by the girl beating his son '_Impressive and troublesome_' was the only thing he thought as he watched the game once again fall into the hands of the young fox girl.

"Why don't I give it a go" the man said, wanting to try his own hand at the girl's strategy. Shikamaru moved out of the way for his father to take on Naruto. An evil grin grew on her face as she started thinking of her battle plan. A couple minutes later one would find two laughing women and two men with their own jaws on the ground, before the older of the two women broke it by announcing dinner was ready. Over dinner Yoshino ask if Naruto wanted to spend the night only for Shikamaru to once again inform her that she couldn't say no

-/ Shikamaru's room, Night time /-

Shikamaru woke up to the shifting of sheets before he heard a voice speak out, "Hey Shika, can I sleep with you?" Naruto asked as some of the memories from earlier that day were making it hard for her to sleep. "Sure." he replied moving over for some room for the girl to lie down, "Thanks Shika."

"No problem" was all he replied before grabbing her hand, soon after both of them quickly fell asleep.

-/A/N/-

repliesrepliesreplies...

Thunderclaw03: I'll try (ーー;)

Tsukiyo69: Thanks ^_^, and yes, kurama and minato merged, I'm going to go into more depth about it when it comes up in the plot, I don't like revealing too much without writing it first!

Danizinhachan: The ANBU and Council members are now friendly towards little Naru. The lower divisions, Jounins and chuunins, are now indifferent towards her because they see their superiors respecting her. The civilians still hate her but do not act out on it because they see the shinobi not giving her dirty looks anymore. Pairings have been decided, but I'm not going to go into depth with them for a while.

Cafuchi: :;(∩´﹏`∩);:

HjLostDreams: I love the story so far just make sure the story still has a dark undertone I mean she just tried to commit suicide and something like this will take time to heal. For pairing idea Femnaruxhina because I can easily see Hinata giving Naruto the love she needs in a relationship. The characters would not match well

I'm trying . this is my first written work that I've ever actually worked on so I'm still stuck at some points, as for the F-NaruxHina, I was thinking about it but I decided against it because the pairing I have now has been planned out and ties in with her progression and.. yeah

（；￣ェ￣）

That chapter was bugging me for the entire day because I really wanted to write that last scene, well anyways Thanks for reading probably be a bit longer before I put up the next chapter.

じゃね～


	3. Chapter 3

A/N Note, I own Nothing! Huzzah! I feel like a maniac writing so much, I've never done this much before but I CAN'T STOP! its so much fun! oh, the cover image is my sketch of Naruto's ninja outfit (I forgot to add the emblem to the belt) but she won't use it till her third year. Why do people keep suggesting pairing? I have everything planned out (━┳━ _ ━┳━)'

Anyways, read, review, enjoy ^_^

-/ Nara Clan building, Shikamaru's room /-

Shikamaru grumble as he felt something constricting his chest, it was warm and he kind of liked it, and being as lazy as always he didn't want to get out of bed just yet. No, what made him want to get out of bed was a certain giggling noise coming over from the doorway included with the occasional shutter sound of a camera taking a picture, followed by some more giggles. Opening his eyes to look down at what was holding him down to his bed made some blood drip out of his nose, below him a girl with sunny blonde, red tipped hair was casually sleeping on his chest, arms wrapped around him and holding him tightly. He looked at her face, one look at it made him give up all attempts to get out of bed, '_It should be illegal to be that cute_' the thought while a blush slowly crept across his face. Running through his options of how to get out of bed without waking the girl, his mind was filled with blanks as her face constantly clouded his typically reasonable thoughts, once again giving up, he decided to have a little fun of his own, lifting himself up slightly he blew a little air at her fox ears only to watch them twitch from the feeling. Blush quickly filling across his face at the reaction the fell back down onto the pillow, '_yup, definitely should be illegal_'. Feeling a sudden shock against the bed Naruto grumbled before poking her tail out of the sheets, opening her eyes to notice she was not grabbing a pillow she yipped and buried herself under the cover to avoid showing her raging blush to her friend.

"Morning Naru," Shikamaru greeted the girl, "Can you get out of bed so I can go burn some pictures?" poking her head out with a curious face he pointed over to the doorway of his room. Standing in the doorway was a laughing Shikaku and nose-bleeding Yoshino, both of them stopped what they were doing upon hearing a loud grumble coming from the bed. Turning back to the girl it came from Shikamaru laughed as he looked at the girl who was now rubbing the back of her head embarrassed grin twitching on her face, "Breakfast is ready now, I was going to come wake you two lovebirds up but I let you guys rest a bit more seeing how peaceful you two were." 'troublesome mothers' was all that Shikamaru grumbled in a reply as he got out of the bed to go put a shirt on, Naruto instead followed Yoshino and Shikaku over to the dining room to eat. After a cozy breakfast Naruto decided it was time to take her leave, with a bow she left the household, "I like her." the Nara mother said happily as she walked back into the kitchen to clean up, '_I do too_' thought shikamaru as he thought about what to do today, turning to his father who was also looking at him, "Shogi?" he asked his father, "Lets."

-/ Konoha Streets, with Naruto /-

Skipping as she walked down the streets, still wearing her dress that the Hokage gave her on her birthday, she began to once again notice all the hateful glares of the villagers, but something was different, '_they're not looking at me?_' she questioned following the their glares to a woman eating dango under a nearby tree with a mischievous grin she slowly walked over to the woman, unknown to her that she was slowly melting into the shadows of the nearby wooden fence.

Anko was having a simply wonderful day, the villagers were glaring at her as per usual, but today she won a bet with Kurenai, so she didn't have to pay for her dango! Munching and swallowing the second to last one she closed her eyes in enjoyment as they refreshing taste of sake slowly followed it, moving on to the last one she slowly brought it to her mouth only to close them on not a delicious ball of awesomeness but nothing. Confused she opened her mouth again and moved her hand that was holding the stick closer thinking it was too far away, '_Maybe I had a sip too much of sake_' she thought as she once again bit down on nothing, opening her eyes to look at her hand she noticed it was now empty. However, she also noticed a tail dancing back and forth in front of her eyes, following it back to it's owner she noticed a young blonde girl now munching on her last dango, "Wow! these are really good!" she exclaimed happily munching on the savory snack, "How'd you do that?" Anko honestly asked, '_she slipped right by me without me even noticing_' "do what?" the blond asked the Anko, "how you take my dango without me noticing?"

"I just grabbed it out of you hand and sat down next to you," she said with a large smile, "now its my turn to ask a question! Why do the villagers look at you like that?" frowning at the question she turned away from the girl to take another sip of sake, "don't worry about it." she said getting up from underneath the tree, her mood was now worse with this kid reminding her of her past. Naruto, thinking of another way to approach the woman quickly come up with an idea, little did she know, he wallet would soon crying, "What if I treat you to some dango?" Anko quickly did a one-eighty and grabbed the poor girl in a bear hug, "Scratch that, you're the best kid ever!" letting her go, she quickly lead her to the shop. During the small walk, the glares directed at her and the girl with her did not go unnoticed, '_No wonder why she approached me_' now curious to ask about her story, she lead her inside the shop where they took a table over in the corner away from most of the other customers. Ordering a few more dango and some tea, Anko turned back to the girl finally noticing the fox ears that were reacting to all the other sounds in the room, she smiled, '_How could anyone hate something so cute!_' leaving her mind wandering she decided to begin her story, "It all started back when I was a genning, my sensei, the infamous Orochimaru, asked me to leave the village with him, being young and ignorant, I blindly followed him only to realize how terrible of a mistake that was, he didn't care for me at all, he treated me like some labrat and put me through all sorts of test for his own pleasure and sickening work." She paused to take a bite into a dango, lifting up her spirits a bit, "Finally having enough of it I left him, coming back to the village, but it was too late, the damage was done and all of the villagers just see me as the 'snake whore' who still works for Orochimaru." Sighing, she didn't really like talking about her past, but she felt she could trust the kid, her eyes showed the same sadness and loneliness she felt after coming back to the village.

Looking down at the girl she realized something she forgot, "I never got your name kid, what was it?" looking up at Anko a smile erupted across her face, "I'm Naruto Uzumak!" she boasted happily, finally connecting the dots between their connection she smiled, '_I'm sure we'll get along nicely_' "I get it now," she started explaining to Naruto, "I felt something similar between us when we were coming her, you're the 'demon brat' as the villagers like to say," with a loud laugh she continued, "the demon brat and the snake whore, I like it!" Naruto joined her laughter when she noticed she was ridiculing the villagers, "Say kid, you want to hang out together? I'm off duty for the rest of the day." hearing those words made her expression priceless he ears perked up and tail waved around like it had a life of its own, bursting out in laughter at the reaction, the two left the dango shop to have their own fun, a cold chill ran down the spine of most of the villagers at that.

-/ Hokage tower, main office /-

Hiruzen was giggling like a schoolgirl as he flipped through the pages of his limited edition Icha-Icha: Paradise, casually sipping on his tea as he flipped to the next page his giggles immediately stopped when he heard a small crack coming from the cup he was holding, soon after a cold chill came down his spine. Putting away the orange book he pulled out his crystal ball and quickly found out one of his nightmares coming true, the image reflected on the ball showed Naruto and Anko laughing together as they were walking down the street. Regardless, seeing their new found friendship an idea formed in his head, '_I'm going to regret doing this but it will be worth it for Naruto_' waving to one of the ANBU in the room who stepped out of the shadows to listen to his orders, "Get me Anko Mitarashi" The ANBU nodded as he was replaced by a few leaves that fell to the floor.

Fifteen minutes later an annoyed Anko came into the room trailed by the ANBU that retrieved her, nodding thanks to the ANBU, he turned his attention to the woman as the ANBU guard took their leave, a few hand seals later a small hum filled the room and disappeared as soon as it came, signifying the activation of a privacy seal. Anko sent the Hokage a questioning look, "take a seat," he suggested, she nodded and walked over to the sit down in the chair she questioned the man, "Why was I summoned on my off-duty day, Hokage-sama?" the old man chuckled at the formality, "relax, I called you here to ask you of a favor."

"A favor?" the snake mistress questioned the man, "I have noticed you have made a friendship with my little Naru, tell me, what do you see in her?" smiling at the way he thinks of Naruto she honestly admitted what was going through her mind, "I see a girl who was burdened by loneliness and was pushed away from the village, just like I was, so I offered my hand as a friend to help take some of that off of her shoulders." a smile grew across the man's face as he listened to the woman's truth-filled words, "it warms my heart to hear that someone else treats her so well," leaning forwards, he continued with his idea, "my favor that I mentioned involves the young girl, you see, I cannot directly have an influence with her life as much as I would wish too, it would raise too much suspicion about her and any spies in our village would not let it go as water under the bridge." pausing to take another sip of tea, "recently, some of the villagers have been getting cockier with the growing times, and after her recent incident I worry about he a lot more-" he was cut off from continuing by the woman, "Recent incident?" Anko questioned the Sandaime. Taking a breath, thought about how he would bring up what happened, just thinking about it made his heart fall into his stomach, "She attempted to take her own life by jumping off the Hokage monument, which succeeded but it seems the fox had other plans and brought her back." Placing a hand over her mouth as she gasped at what the man just said, '_I knew he life must have been bad, but to see death as her only option so young_' she shivered at the thought, even someone as bloodthirsty as Anko knew that was too much, "Tell me, whatever you request for the girl, I'd gladly do it." a smile came back across his face as he reached into his desk, pulling out an envelope, "I don't want Naruto to be living all alone anymore, so I was going to ask if you could possibly take her in to live with you at your apartment, I'd pay her half too."

"I'll do it, I'll pay her share too, just give her the money as allowance, the girl needs it if she's going to be living with me." she agreed while laughing at her comment at the end. "Good, but there is one more thing I'd like to tell you." quieting back down to listen to the Hokage speak, "Its an SS-class secret, so please, don't tell anyone, making excuses for sudden deaths adds a lot of paperwork." Anko sweatdropped at the comment before nodding to listen, "to explain it short and simply, Naruto's father is the Yondaime." Anko nodded dumbly as the rusty gears in her mind started working, when the thought finally settled half a minute later the people outside the room nearly hear Anko's yell through the privacy seal. She turned to look over at the picture of the Yondaime on the wall, picturing Naruko right next to it before slamming a hand on her face,"Its so obvious!" she stated dumbfounded, "no wonder you don't want her gaining too much attention." The man chuckled at her response, "Yes, I just wonder almost every day when it comes to the day that I'm going to tell her, I have no idea how she's going to react."

"Well, one things for certain, I'm definitely going to be there, I'll take my leave now, I've got to go find Naruto." Bowing as she left the room, the Sandaime sighed as he release the privacy seal, '_I'm glad how that went_' he smiled before taking another sip of his tea and reaching in his desk for his special orange book, which caused the once quiet room to be filled again with giggles coming from the old man.

-/ Hokage monument, with Anko and Naruto /-

Anko found Naruto sitting on the Yondaime's head when she was brought back to what the old man said about her, a sad smile came across her face as she approached the girl to sit down next to her, "You're really hard to find, you know that right?" the girl turned to Anko and gave her a grin before it fell as her attention turned back to the setting sun, "The old man told me," Anko started gauging her reaction, her eyes seem to loose some of their glow before she pulled in her knees and rested her head on them. Anko put an arm on her shoulder before contemplating on how to say what was on her mind, "Ya know, I had an idea" Naruto turned to the other girl and looked at her like she grew a second head, "You? idea? I wouldn't have thought I'd ever hear those two words use in the same sentence." Anko only slapped her on the back of the head, "As I was saying, how would you like to move in with me? I could use the company, and I think you could too." She said with a smile as she watched her reaction, her eyes just widened before a few tears came out as she grabbed Anko into a hug. The older woman placed a hand on her ears to pet her head, more specifically her ears, as the young fox cried into her shirt, "thank you." she mumbled, "Anytime kid."

-/ Anko and Naruto's apartment, later that night /-

Naruto finally finished moving in and the two went out for ramen for dinner, Naruto payed as thanks as continued to eat through 12 bowls to make up for the days she missed. Anko could only wonder in awe as such a small girl ate almost more than her entire being, '_Seriously, where the hell does it all go?_' Anko could only wonder as she lay in bed thinking about the past day. Her calm thoughts we soon interrupted by something she didn't expect, a scream filled the apartment realizing it was Naruto, she quickly reached for the kunai under her pillow only to find a really hard time moving as her head began spinning in pain, '_Genjutsu!_' she thought as she dispelled the effects, growing more worried of an intruder she quickly rushed over to Naruto's room only to notice she was the only one there. Looking at the girl, she noticed what was the cause, quickly dropping the kunai and running over to the bed she placed her arms around the shaking girl, '_She's a having night terror!_' trying to calm the girl she looked into her eyes and noticed the change, but once she looked into them Anko suddenly froze, gone were her ocean blue orbs, instead there were violet slit eyes they had an eerie glow to them. Attempting to take her attention away from the eyes to calm down the shaking girl but noticed she was locked in place, '_What is this?_' she said as she continued to stare into the unusual eyes. Sounds of what was going on around the two were slowly fading as she began to only hear her heart slowly speeding up as fear started to creep into her mind, the hairs on the back of her neck began to stand up as she felt a sudden cold begin to spread around her. She tried to break contact with the eyes to stop what was happening wasn't working but she soon remembered what she was doing, as her instincts turned from fear to worry for the girl, gaining enough willpower to break contact with her eyes she looked down the girl, she was shaking violently. "Shhh, everythings ok, you're safe," she attempted to reassure the girl as she held the girl in her arms, rocking back and forth as her motherly nature came into play, "you're ok, you safe," she whispered again as she began to stroke the back of her head. Slowly, the girl began to calm down, once her shaking stopped she looked back and saw her eyes turned back to normal, '_That was an extraordinarily powerful genjutsu_' she thought and shivered at the thought of her being able to use it at will, but that shiver soon turned into excitement to watch someone break under that kind of pressure, '_Oh, I'm going to teach you all sorts of things if you learn how to use that power_' grin fading from her face as she noticed the girl had fallen back to sleep she picked her up and brought her over to her room, placing her in the bed with her she quickly fell asleep holding onto the girl, not wanting her to awaking in another terror.

-/ Yamanaka household, two days later /-

Anko came with Naruto for her evaluation to tell him the issue with her night terrors. Bringing the man off to the side while Naruto began talking with Ino, "She's been having night terrors," Anko started, gaining Inoichi's attention, "well more than just that, it seems that if someone is with her when she falls asleep they won't occur. Its good that we started to live together then," she stopped to take a breath, remembering what happens when she wakes up, Inoichi noticing her worry he questioned her, "what would happen if someone wasn't there?" he asked, a little bit confused as to what would happen, "She wakes up screaming," Anko started, rubbing her temples remembering the headaches, "the problem is, its not a normal scream, its laces with genjutsu that rival's some of Kuranai's best." Anko was glad that woman taught her how to break free from strong genjutsus, helped discover a lot about the girl, "thats very interesting." Inoichi stated, "Oh, thats not it, it seems our little kit here has a doujutsu." Now his attention was completely on her, she started in a quieter tone, "when she wakes from the screams, her eyes become feral, they slow violet with dark slits instead of pupils," she shivered remembering them, "I'll give you a tip right now, don't ever look into them if they appear, it causes a strong enough genjutsu that would make Orochimaru shit his pants in fear." the fear in her voice did not go unnoticed by the man, "alright, I'll file it in her report as part of her fox bloodline, but a doujutsu like that could cause havoc if it ever activated on a civilian, they would simply fall over dead fear." Anko nodded as she walked back over to her new friend, "Alright Naruto, my work is done here, but I have to go talk to the Hokage, so I'll see you back at the house later tonight." Naruto nodded as she continued to talk to Ino. The two girls decided to find their two friends to go hang out with them. Inoichi smiled as he watched the two girls leave and began to gather his papers to bring to the hospital and the Hokage.

-/ Shikamaru's cloud watching spot, a few hours later /-

Naruto was lying in the grass next to Shikamaru, the two were watching the clouds together while Naruto was talking about how she moved in with Anko, Ino and Choji left a little while ago, Ino had to run some errands for the flower shop and Choji's family was going out for dinner. "So what have you been up to?" Naruto asked as he turned his attention over to Shikamaru, only to notice he was fast asleep, '_Was he even listening to me?_' Ignoring her previous thought, she closed her eyes as she lie in the grass listening to the birds chirp in the nearby tree when it the sound suddenly disappeared.

-/ Moonlit meadow, Location unknown /-

Naruto opened her eyes to the sight of tall grass swaying from a gentle breeze that seemed to naturally flow through the endless meadow. Looking around she quickly found the Yondaime sitting at a small table in a little open area drinking a glass of tea, "Ah, I see you've made your way back here?" the man said smiling to Naruto, "Can I only ever come here when I'm watching cloud with Shika?" the Yondaime simply shrugged to the question, "I honestly have no idea, but I think its something along those lines," he paused to take another sip, "So, seeing how we have a little time to ourselves, what would you like to talk about?" thinking of something to ask, "so are my tail and ears permanent?"

"**I can answer that one,**" turning around to see the fox lying in the grass tails waving majestically behind him, "**To put it simply, yes, it you will bear those for the rest of your life**" Naruto frowned upon hearing the answer, '_I mean, I like them, but they're kinda weird sometimes_' she quietly thought to herself, "**Don't go making such a face just yet**" the girl looked back up at the fox as he opened his eyes, revealing glowing violet once instead of the red that the old stories told of him, "**that tail is more that just a tail, it is one of my own, and since it is a part of me, it copied the part of me that the tair represented. The one I gave you was the one signifying my intelligence, seeing how idiotic you were before it seemed like the best choice**" she nodded it the choice made sense, "**In addition, to gaining just a tail, you inherited some of my fox blood, giving you some new abilities, from what I can tell, you can only use a few, you would gain more if I give you another one of my tails, but you need to prove to me that you have earned it before I willingly give it up to you.**" Naruto was letting the information sink in when she noticed something, "You seem awfully kind for someone who almost destroyed the entire village, what that all about?" The fox simply laughed after listen to the question, "**The only reason I was so violent goes all the way back to when Madara first used me to fight against Hashirama, when he used those eyes to control me I became a mindless beast, seeing how they couldn't kill me they simply sealed me away, but when you died that one night, my existence was slowly fading away but at the very last moment Madara's curse finally broke and managed to save your life, as well as my own.**" Naruto simply laughed, "So you're just like me then! Everyone just thinks you some big old mean demon! So what are the fox abilities you mentioned?"

"**Ahh, let me think for a moment here, hmm, yes, it seems like you have three fox skills that you can use now, the first thing you should know is that foxes are the masters of illusion and stealth, so these are your expertise as well,**" Naruto nodded, showing she was listening, Minato was quite interested as well, "**The first technique you'll be able to use would be kage no komo, it allows you to move through shadows completely unseen to human eyes,**" Minato found this very interesting, "Byakugan and sharingan as well?" he asked the great fox, who nodded in response, "**The next is Kagami no kage, which is what the Kage bunshin is based off of, It is a hard technique to master but it greatly surpaces that of the bunshin, let me show you.**" he shifted into an image of Minato, but with red hair and his violet eyes, "**Kagami no kage**" he said while holding an unknown hand sign, beside him a perfect image of himself shimmered into existence, "It's certainly a lot quieter than the kage bunshin." Minato stated in interest, "**Try breaking it.**" the real Minato walked over to the clone and punched it the chest, he watched in amazement as the clone bucked over from the pain of being hit before Minato sent a roundhouse kick to the face, but instead of exploding in cloud of smoke the image shattered like a mirror as the pieces began to reflect the moon back as they silently fell to the ground.

"Amazing" Naruto watched in awe of the technique, turning back to the fox she watched him grow back into his usual form, "**The third is what I just showed you, it is the ability to shapeshift, the technique itself is seamless but staying in a form will drain your chakra at a slow rate but like the first, human eyes will not be able to tell the difference, but its more than just an illusion, you will actually shift into the figure, but you can only change into a fox or another human, anything else will not work.**" The girl nodded upon hearing the new things she will be capable of, "So, Naruto, have you decided if you wanted to become a ninja?" Minato asked from back at the table, "Yeah! and I'm going to be the best ever!" Minato chuckled at the thought, '_so much like her mother_' he smiled at the thought of Kushina before thinking back to the girl in front of him, "If thats the case, why don't I begin to train you every time you are here?" Minato suggested to the girl, "**I'll begin to teach you your fox techniques as well**" Naruto smiled as she began to jump up and down in excitement, "Can we start now?" Minato shook his head at the girl, "It seems like our time is up for the day, your friend has woken up." slowly the dreamscape disappeared as she came back into reality.

-/ Shikamaru's cloud watching spot /-

The sun was almost completely set on the horizon when Shikamaru woke up, '_I've been falling asleep a lot when I'm with Naru_' the lazy boy thought to himself as he looked at Naruto who was waking up herself, smiling, he began to get up, helping her up too. "C'mon, I'll walk you home." Naruto nodded as she held onto Shikamaru's hand, "Say Shika," he 'hmm'-ed in response as he turned to listen to the girl, "are you going to join the ninja academy?" he nodded, "My mother has probably already signed me up for next year, why?" she smiled, "Because I'm going too!" he hugged the boy as the continued to walk to the girl's apartment.

-/ Anko and Naruto's apartment, that night /-

Anko and Naruto were lying in bed together, the only way to stop Naruto's night terrors seemed to be if someone was with her when she fell asleep. Anko didn't mind in the least sharing the bed with her new friend, she was glad she could help the poor girl this much, "Hey Anko?" "hmm?" was all the reply Naruto got as Anko began to pet her ears, "I'm going to join the academy next year, since you're a jonin you can train me right?" Those words were music to her ears, the thought of her eyes being used in T&I was almost heavenly, laughing evilly, "Of course Naru-chan." with that, Naruto brought the older woman into a tight hug as they fell asleep.

-/ Academy entrance, one year later /-

"Ready guys?" Naruto asked Shikamaru and Choji as they stood outside the gate, "Yup" Choji said as he dug into a new bag of chips, "troublesome" was all Shikamaru got to say before Naruto grabbed both of them and happily skipped to the building.

A/N note: Fun fact: whenever I mention drinking tea in the story I write it unintentionally whenever I take a sip of tea IRL (〃￣ω￣〃ゞ

Well, that was that chapter. It was bugging me all day to write it so I finally gave in and just wrote it, I swear, each chapter gets another 1k words every time I write, anyways I need to sleep, caffeine is wearing off ミ●﹏ ミ


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Such a late update... this is one of those chapters that too me a while to write.

_Chapter 4_

-/ Iruka's classroom, 4 years later /-

Iruka was writing some details about the past Hokages on the board when he heard a distinctive _clack_ in the back of the room of a wooden piece being placed on a wooden board. Ignoring it, he continued on with the lecture only to hear the noise start up again, _clack, clack, clack,_ he turned to look back where in the room it was coming from, but noticing nothing out of the ordinary, Including the two sleeping students in the back. It didn't bother him that much that Shikamaru and Naruto were asleep, he knew that both of them knew a lot more that he was explaining at the moment. Ignoring the sound once again, he turned back to continue his explanation when it started up again, _clack, clack, clack, pause, clack, clack, clack_. Now the noise was beginning to bother him, but it looked like the students didn't notice it, ignoring it once again, he turned back to the board. _Clack, clack, clack_, he heard the noise start up again but this time followed by a couple of giggles from an Inuzaka and an Akamichi, turning around to see nothing changed from the first time, he continued on the lecture. _Clack, clack, clack, _ the sound started up again but right before he was going to turn around it was followed by a voice of a certain girl who was asleep just a moment ago, "Yes! I won!" she said laughing. Iruka turned around to see the girl standing up out of her seat in a victory pose while Shikamaru had his hand on his face at her reaction, "Opps, sorry Iruka-sensei, you didn't see anything." she said while rubbing the back of her head, sitting back down in her chair to clean up what was a shogi board between them, '_Did she use a genjutsu to cover that up?_' he asked to himself. The teacher waved it off and began to continue his lecture, not before telling a certain someone to see him after class.

After the class ends, two students are left behind to clean the desks as punishment for 'disrupting class' as Iruka sat on the desk to finish grading papers. Naruto giggled every time the other boy said 'troublesome' which left her laughing almost the entire time they were cleaning, "You two are the top of the class, yet all you do is fool around and sleep, I never get it." the blonde smiled, of course they were the best in class, Naruto was taught by the Yondaime, a being that has lived thousands of years,and her older sister, Anko; Shikamaru was taught indirectly by the two and he was a Genius. The Nara boy was lazy at first but being outmatched in every subject by your crush is more 'troublesome' than doing the work, not that he'd ever admit his feelings any time soon. Her thoughts were interrupted by incoming footsteps, which she recognized almost immediately as her lovely older sister. "Naru," the woman called out entering the classroom, "Oh! you're being punished! What naughty thing were you doing during class today?" Shikamaru immediately found a spot on the desk to be very interesting at that comment, "Hehe, me and Shika were playing shogi in class, I hid it with a genjutsu." Naruto replied while replied while rubbing the back of her head in her typical fashion, "Why am I not surprised, c'mon lets go get some dangos before go-" Anko stopped when she noticed the third person in the room, its funny to see the most feared woman in the entire village going from her typical bloodthirsty self to a stuttering Hinata in a matter of seconds, "O-oh, y-y-you mus-st b-be I-Ikura, i-i-its nice t-to m-meet y-you" she said with a blush that also rivals Hinata's, noticing this Naruto's typical evil grin grew on her face, '_Oh Anko-nee, there is no way I'm going to let you loose one this one._' "Ok Anko-nee! See you tomorrow Shika." said the little blonde dragging the older woman out of the classroom. "Well, that was interesting. Study hard for tomorrow you two!" said Iruka as he went back to grading the paperwork, "troublesome" was all Iruka managed to hear from the other boy as he left the room.

"Sooo, Anko-nee, you going to tell me about your little secret?" asked the blonde, evil grin stretching across her mouth, "or do you want me to go tell him about it?" The already blushing Anko simply went up a few shades from the torment her little sister is giving her, she just wanted to go get her dango and be over with it, '_Why'd I have to teach her interrogation..._' she thought, crying inwardly. The two made their way into the dango shop only to find two of Anko's friends, Kurenai and Yugao, already there. "Kurenai, Yugao! guess what I found out," teased Naruto as she ran over to the two women, "Anko-nee has a crush!" the two women looked over at the blonde like she grew another head, "there is no way Anko found a man in this town," Kurenai turned to notice not denying it, but blushing too, "Oh my god you really did." The purple-haired women decided to take part in the teasing as well, "Well, who's the lucky man?" Naruto's grin just grew even more, "Iruka-sensei." Anko, wanting to just die in a hole instead of dealing with this embarrassment decided to just put her head down on the table and cover it up with her arms, "why'd you tell them?" she asked in a whimper, "just a little revenge for some of your training."

-/ Iruka's classroom, the next day /-

"Alright class, today is the day where you will prove to be gennin on Konoha! We will first have a written test followed by a taijutsu spar and then you will have to perform a few jutsus, your overall score will determine if you will become a gennin." Iruka announced to the classroom, "You want to put in his place or do I get the honors, Shika?" For once, this is one of the days that Shikamaru wasn't going to hold back. Shikamaru, Naruto, and Choji knew that the top boy and girl along with the dead last would make up a team, so they were going to have Naruto and Shika hold back through the year and then get perfects on the finals, while Choji laid back and let the other two do the work. Shikamaru at first did not like the plan, because he did not want to work to hard, but once again, getting outdone by your crush in every aspect isn't a very good feeling, so he decided to become top of the class. "I'll do the honors, I'll probably be placed against him in the first place. It'll be fun to finally put a fist in his face." Shikamaru began to despise the Uchiha boy over the years, his grades were being adjusted so he was top of the class. The Nara boy didn't care too much that the brat was getting higher scores than him, he did care that he was getting placed above Naruto and calling her a 'dobe' because she never got higher than him, but this time the scores are going straight to the hokage to put together the teams, and Iruka is the one bringing them over, so there is no way that he can get falsified information. The teacher assistant, Mizuki, started handing out the written test, not without giving Naruto an unnoticed glade before putting a sheet down on her desk, quickly looking at the sheet he saw some of the numbers on the test change '_He's trying to make her fail? why would he do that._' "Hey Naruto, did Choji bring in any barbeque chips in this morning?" he whispered to Naruto, she looked down at her paper to notice the subtle amount of chakra, '_Iruka wouldn't do this, It must have been Iruka then_' she thought as she quietly dispelled the illusion, "yeah, he did." A smile grew across his face, "Good." Naruto and Shikamaru decided to invent a way to communicate information subtly with it looking like a normal conversation, and the first thing they thought about was to use Choji's ever present potato chips as a method.

"You have forty five minutes to finish this part, begin!" Iruka called out as the class quickly began to scribble away. Naruto and Shikamaru were the first to finish, and after five minutes they decided to take a nap to get some rest before the spars. Holding hands under the desk so that Naruto didn't have a chance to send the entire school to the hospital waking up, they quickly fell asleep. Choji finished soon after the fifteen minute mark along with Shino, Sakura, and Sasuke, Choji knew all the answers but only answered enough to barely pass. The rest of the class mostly finished after half an hour, and when the time was called everyone was finished, "Next are the spars, follow Mizuki outside and we will begin."

Outside on the sparring field, the class quickly lined up to wait to be called upon, "You will fight until one person wins by getting three hits off, or when we decide to end the match, losing will not hurt your grade, but winning will help it, first up..." Naruto and Shikamaru zoned out as they waited for their turns in a spar, watching the clouds pass by overhead. "Next, Sasuke against Shikamaru!" the two boys walked into the ring were going to have their match while Naruto had to cover her sensitive ears from the screeching of the fangirls, going on about how a 'lazy boy can't beat an Uchiha' and 'you should just forfeit so Sasuke doesn't have to waste time with you.' '_Oh how wrong you girls are_' the fox girl looked over to her best friend to give him a thumbs up while mouthing 'kick his ass'. "Take your positions," Sasuke and Shikamaru both went into the academy style stance, "Begin!" Quickly charging forwards thinking he got lucky with an easy fight Sasuke through a right punch towards the other boys head but it was dodged as Shikamaru leaned to the right while bringing his left leg up to kick the Uchiha in the side. "One point to Shikamaru!" Iruka called out, as he continued to watch the small match, "lucky hit" taunted the Uchiha realizing he needed to step up his game, he moved in for a low kick to knock Shikamaru down, but it was dodge by him by jumping up and placed a right hook into Sasuke's gut as he followed with his turn. Deciding to end the match there, Shikamaru copied the same move with a left leg sweep and that brought Sasuke to the ground, "Point two and three to Shikamaru! well done." Shikamaru bowed to his opponent and moved back in line to stand with Naruto, ignoring the glares coming from Sasuke.

"Next, Hinata against Naruto!" the two girls quickly moved up to the ring, bowing to each other in respect, "Take your positions," Hinata went into her gentle fist stance while Naruto brought both her hands up in front, with her left hand behind her right, similar to the gentle fist. '_She's never used this stance before, I wonder what it is?_' wanting to see more of this new style, he started the match, "Begin!" Hinata quickly moved in with a quick palm strike to left shoulder, but the blond pushed the attack to the side while making a quick jab into her lower shoulder, locking it up, recovering Hinata went in for a right palm strike into Naruto's lower right ribs, but she dodged it by leaning to the left and followed through with a grapple and a putting her right leg into Hinata's right followed by a right jab into the shoulder. The entire fight lasted five seconds. "Uh, winner, Naruto!" '_That was a lot more than I expected._' Happily skipping back to her place next to her best friend to watch the rest of the fights before the next part of the exam, only to realize that she was the last match, "Lets get started with the ninjutsu portion. Follow me into the building." the students followed their sensei inside to where they were called in one at a time to test their ninjutsu. But being near the end of the list, Naruto had to wait a while before she was called into the private room.

A couple minutes and a sleepy Nara later, Naruto was called in. She quickly noticed the hitai-ate on the table, she quickly picked out the one she wanted in her mind while turning her attention to the two teachers, "Ok Naruto, are you ready for this portion of the exam?" She nodded and walked up in between the two teachers, "Ok, can you first show us a Henge?" she nodded once more and used she fox shapeshift to turn into a spitting image of the Yondaime, "Is this good enough?" her voice also completely replicating the Yondaime's. Iruka's jaw hit the floor, but gave his approval, watching the girl slowly change back into her normal form, "Yes, almost too good, I thought the Yondaime came back to life for a second." Rubbing the back of her head with a grin she let out a couple of laughs, "Ok, next can you show us a Kimawari?" Naruto shook her head, "No, I can't do a Kimawari, but I can do something similar to a shushin" she offered happily, "that could work, well, lets see it then." she nodded and her figure quickly was replaced with a shadow that faded away, "I'm behind you!" Iruka turned around to noticed the girl behind her, '_I didn't even feel a presence, That was more like an advanced shushin than anything similar to it._' "Where did you learn how to do it?" he asked, no acadamy student should have learned a jutsu like that. "Uhhh, I made it?" The teacher once again found himself dumbfounded, '_She made that? how?_' "but its part of my bloodline, so no one else can do it." he found it slightly easier to believe after hearing that exception, "What is it called? if you don't mind me asking." She smiled as she made her way back in front of the desk, taking pride in her self made ability, well, almost self made, Kurama had his own input. "Its called Ho no Kage, or shadowstep, its the same as the shushin but is sealess and uses a little more chakra." Nodding in approval, he asked for the last jutsu, "alright now can you make two bunshin?" she nodded and held her fingers into the fox seal, "Kagami no kage" she whispered as two clones faded into existence next to her, "Impressive, I assume that is also another bloodline ability?" she nodded, answering his question, "Well then, congratulations Naruto, you pass! Pick a hitai-ate from the table and be back here tomorrow for team placement." she dispelled the clones and walked over to pick up a belt hitai-ate from the table and put it on, making her way out of the room he grabbed Shikamaru as they left the building to go get dinner with everyone. Iruka finished putting together the paperwork and left the building towards the Hokage tower.

-/ Hokage's office, half an hour later /-

Hiruzen heard the knock on the door, putting down his pen, he called out for the person to come in, "Ah, Anko, I handing in a mission?" She walked up in front of the desk to hand the Hokage a scroll, "Yup! now I'm going to be heading to dinner with little Naru, I'm so happy she graduated!" chuckling a bit at the woman's antics he remembered something he was going to discuss, "speaking of promotions, I have a deal for you." hearing this peaked the her interests, "I am willing to promote you to Jonin from tokubetsu Jonin." obviously noticing there would be a catch, she asked it, "but?" smiling Hiruzen pulled out a folder, "You would take a genin team." Quickly realising she would never do that, "Nope! I would never take on a team." turning around to head to the door the Sandaime chuckled, "Oh? and who were you so happy for just a moment ago?" stopping in her tracks as her rusty gears stated grinding together as she slowly made her way back to the desk, "may I be told what team I get right now?" he was going to respond as another knock was heard on the door, "It's Iruka," the man called from behind the doors, Anko quickly blushed as her mind started racing a mile a minutes, "Come in," the hokage called out looking back up to the woman, but noticing the large blush on her face he waited to continued the conversation, "Hokage-sama, I have the grades from the class, however, I must inform you that someone attempted to change Sasuke Uchiha's grade to be the top of the class." rubbing his temples as he heard this attempt, he nodded as he took the papers from Iruka, "Oh hello Anko, I heard you were going to be one of the team captains, I hope you get a good one," winking, he turned to leave the room. It took nearly all of Hiruzen's willpower to not start laughing at this point, the fearful Anko was now bright red after the comment, "So?" he asked the woman. Not trusting her voice after that act, she simply nodded as she waited to hear what team she would get. "Good, just give me a minute to figure out the teams and I'll tell you now who you have." nodding once more, she waited patiently. Hiruzen opened the folder to quickly look at the scores, with a smile he noticed Naruto and Shikamaru at the top with Choji at the bottom, '_I'd bet all my money that they planned that_' he thought writing down the first team, Team ten - Choji Akamichi, Shikamaru Nara, Naruto Uzumaki, sensei: Anko Mitarashi; Team eight - Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzaka, sensei: Kurenai Yuhi; Team seven - Sakura Haruno, Ino Yamanaka, Sasuke Uchiha, sensei - Kakashi Hatake. '_That'll teach the Uchiha brat to cheat his way up_' Hiruzen put on an evil grin as he wrote down the last one, "You'll be team ten, your students will be Choji Akamichi, Shikamaru Nara, and Naruto Uzumaki" Anko took a couple seconds for the effect to hit her, "Eh? I get the best team ever? Is that even fair?" She proceeded to throw her hands in the air in a victory pose, and give a large bow to the Hokage, "Thank you so much Hokage-sama, I shall graciously torture, I mean, teach, my new students." Chuckling a bit he bid her welcome, "please refrain from telling Naruto that you have her on your team or that you are getting a team, she will have to wait until tomorrow before knowing her team. No exceptions." Bowing once more to take her leave, Anko but her serious face back, "understood Hokage-sama." she left closing the doors behind her. '_What an interesting team that will be._'

-/ Moonlit meadow, same day /-

Naruto entered the meadow with a large smile, "Yondaime-sama" she called out, "over here Naruto, but keep it down, Kurama is sleeping, you wouldn't want to wake him up" she laughed a bit before walking over and sitting down at a table with Minato, "I'm guessing you have some good news then?" he asked looking down at the young girl before handing her a cup of tea, "Yup! I graduate today!" She said happily, "One step closer to becoming the best shinobi ever!" He smiled at his daughter, "Your mother said the same thing when she graduated." he let out quietly with a sigh, Naruto simply looked at the man like he grew another head, "Eh?" she asked, "You knew my mother?" he just then realized his mistake, "Oh, did I let that out loud?" she simply nodded, "Oops" he just started laughing embarrassingly while rubbing the back of his head, "I was going to tell you sometime soon, so I guess its alright. Yes I knew your mother." he said with a smile remembering his beautiful wife. "Can you tell me anything about her?" she asked innocently of the man with puppy eyes that should be considered a kinjutsu, "Alright, we have time, so make yourself comfortable. First things first, she had beautiful long red hair..."

Five hours, a happy Naruto, and a somewhat sad Minato later, "And thats why she was called the Red-Hot Habanero!" Naruto simply fell out of the chair laughing while rolling through the grass like a fox, "she was something else..." he said quietly, but Naruto still heard this due to her improved hearing, and quieted down to look back up to the man, his sad eyes showed the a small amount of loneliness, "You loved her didn't you?" she asked with light tone, Minato no longer trusted his voice thinking about his lost lover, simply nodded. Finally gaining back some of his courage, he decided to reveal the truth, "Of course I did, she was my wife." Naruto smiled at that thought, '_they must have loved each other a lot_', but then her brain started going into overdrive, '_wait... Minato's wife was my mother... but that could only mean..._' he brain simply stopped working as she looked at the man she pointed at him, which he followed with a nod, then pointed to herself, which was followed by another nod, and repeated this three more times before it finally sunk in, "dad?" she croaked out while looking at her now revealed father, some tears coming down his face upon hearing that word, he nodded. Naruto simply did what she would have wanted to do at any moment with her father: jump into his arms with a big hug. "Dad!" she croaked out once more, tears now in freefall as she held onto him, "I'm sorry Naru, I wish I could have told you earlier, I wish I could have been with you from the start, I'm sorry for making your life so terrible." she simply shook her head, face still buried into his cloak, "It's fine, you're still here, thats all that matters." Upon hearing those words, his knees gave way, '_She forgives me_...' relief washed over him as he fell to the ground. Weeping while he held his daughter in his arms, '_If only you could be here with us, Kushina_' After what seemed like hours in each other's embrace, Minato let go, "Your friend is waking up, but you cannot reveal what you have learned, you must keep it hidden from everyone." she nodded, placing a hand on his head he started to rub her ears as her tail waved back and forth slowly and happily, "I'll see you soon." he promised as she watched her fade out from the meadow.

-/ With Shikamaru and Naruto /-

The blonde stirred, waking up from her mindscape as she looked over to the now setting sun, with a smile she turned to gaze at the Yondaime's head, '_Thank you, dad_' "Naruto!" Anko called out as she walked over to the two kids, "troublesome sisters" Shikamaru groaned out as he was awoken by the woman, "good morning to you Shika." Naruto said with a smile looking back up to Anko to notice a larger than usual smile, "good news?" she asked the woman, "yup, but you'll have to wait till after you hear your teams before I'm allowed to tell you." nodding, she knew she could wait until then, she got up and picked up the boy with her, "C'mon Shika, lets go home, I want to get this day over with already. groaning once more as he slowly paced himself in the direction of his house as he waved back to the girls who were heading in the other direction.

-/ Iruka's classroom, the following day /-

Naruto and Shikamaru were awoken what could only be described as a banshee screaming, they looked back up to their sensei to noticed what just happened, "-sensei, Kakashi Hatake." the man finished, before moving on with his list but not before they heard Sasuke's head slamming down onto his desk. '_Serves him right_' thought Naruto with an evil grin, "Next, Team eight, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga, and Kiba Inuzaka, your sensei will be Kurenai Yuhi, Team nine, still in commision, Team ten, Choji Akamichi, Shikamaru Nara, and Naruto Uzumaki, your sensei will be Anko Mitarashi." now it was Naruto's turn to scream, but not out of happiness, sure she was happy that her big sister was her sensei, but it was still her big sister, the most bloodlust-crazed woman in the entire village. Fear slowly grew on her body as she started shaking thinking about the torture that her sister was going to put them through, even Shikamaru and Choji were scared of their impending doom. With a sigh, the three kids waited for their teacher and impending doom to arrive.

**-/ A/N Notes /-**

Late update, so on so forth, I skipped the academy days because honestly I really dont like writing them that much, but overall the general idea behind what happened during that time was Naruto got picked on a little by the other kids because of her ears and tail, Shikamaru stood up for her a bit, Iruka didn't get as close as in the original, but that was to be expected, and in addition, Shikamaru and Naruto held back a lot of their potential during their time, Choji only a little, because the other two trained a lot more than him outside of class. As for Naruto's abilities, she only has a few, the shapeshift, the shadow-melding, the mirror clones, and the shadow-shushin, as for stats wise she is roughly mid-high chunin level, and Shikamaru is low-mid chunin, Choji is high genin level.

Next chapter- The Adventures of Team Ten.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

-/Iruka's classroom, team placements /-

Still with fear, team 10 watched their beloved friend/sensei enter the classroom, her revealing outfit in full view, leaving blushing boys - and a few girls. "Alright guys, you know the drill, lets go!" Anko announced pumping her hands in the air, quickly filing out of the room, team 10 made their way to the training grounds. "So, to start it off, our lovely training ground gets to be number forty four, also known as 'The Forest of Death', but don't worry about that too much, its really just one big playground." she explained quickly while they made their way to Anko's third favorite place in the world, only beaten by the dango shop and being with her younger sister, although she would never admit that out loud, she had a reputation to keep. "Here we are," standing in front of a very large forest with her hands off to the sides in a big welcome. "We're training in there!?" Choji quickly started opening another bag of chips to furiously keep himself from screaming in horror. "No, not really, there is a small training field off to the side that we'll be using," pointing to a direction of a clearing off to the side, "the big forest is used of other things."

Moving over to the field, it was like any other, except for the sounds making their way out of the forest next door. "Since all three of you already have perfect teamwork and we all know each other, we're just going to skip the test and the introductions, I just want a quick spar with both of you boys and then we'll make our way over to the mission tower for a quick mission." The three nodded in agreement, "Alright, Shika you first." making their way over to the center of the field, the two got into their ready position. "Begin!" Naruto called out as Shikamaru quickly drew two kunai and sent them at Anko while moving forward and going through the handsigns for his signature technique. Anko, defecting the two kunai, noticed the boy going through handsigns, she jumped back to avoid the shadow that stretched out, "I didn't expect a Nara to be on the offensive, what happened to the lazy genes?" Anko asked, honestly curious about his fighting style, "I'll have a worse fate from the fox than the snake if I'm lazy." letting the gears of her brain turn in an effort to solve the riddle, she didn't notice the shadow once again moving out, this time successfully latching onto it's target. "Kagemane no Jutsu success." Anko, still attempting to figure out what he said, slowly loved out of her thinking pose to imitate the shadow user. "Oh! I get it now!" she looked over to the other girl in the group who cocked her head to the side in confusion while Shikamaru simply planted his hand on his face, causing Anko to follow the movement.

Falling to the ground in laughter, Naruto filled the clearing with the infectious sound as the entire team broke out into laughter, "Alright, Choji, you're up." Shikamaru walked over to Naruto and noticed she was spacing out again, deciding to have a little fun, he laid down onto Naruto's lap which resulted in a small 'eep' coming from the fox-girl. Looking down to see Shikamaru already staring off into the clouds she smiled as she turned her attention back at Choji and Anko who just started fighting. Quickly charging forwards Choji threw a right hook at the same time as he used his Bunba Baika no Jutsu, expanding his arm into three times the size. Not wanting to be squashed, Anko quickly dodged to the side and launched a few snakes from her sleeves, which wrapped themselves up around Choji. "Baika no Jutsu" shouted Choji at he expanded his body into a large ball, which quickly spun towards Anko. Charging a little chakra into her legs Anko jumped over the spinning meatball, but was surprised when Choji ended the attack early and jumped up at Anko once again using his family technique to increase the size of his fist that was aimed at Anko. Thinking quickly threw a few Kunai directly at Choji before he could jump, forcing him to dodge and let Anko land, "Alright thats good enough, I honestly did not expect such a good fight from you. Alright guys, lets head to the mission center to pick up our first mission! Oh how fun!" Anko cried sarcastically, everyone on the team knew the D-ranked missions they were going to perform, so they quickly moved to get over it.

-/ Mission Center /-

The doors to the room opened to team 10 as they moved over to the desk to pick up their first chore, "Team 10, seems you're here two days earlier than expected. Ready for your first mission, I presume?" asked the Hokage, Anko turned to the man to give him a nod, "Yes, I decided our team has no reason to be put through the genin test, they are capable enough and work together very well." Iruka looked up from the documents he was reading to hand them a scroll, "Your first mission is to retrieve the Fire Daimyo's wife's cat, Tora, good luck." the team bowed in unison as they made their way out of the room. As soon as the door closed behind them Anko let out a large sigh, "How'd I do?" she asked her younger sister, a small blush creeping across her face, "Normal" Naruto replied with a smile. Quickly making their way across the roofs towards the last known location of Tora, team 10 found their way to an alleyway but they stopped when they noticed a pair of eyes open in the dark to stare at them. After a few seconds of the staredown the being jumped from the shadows at the team, directly into the arms of Naruto. With a small purr she looked down to what just landed into her arms, only to find their target sleeping softly, "well, that was easy." Anko just stared in awe, the demon has never been caught so fast, the best time for the team was an hour and they just caught it within ten minutes. "Quickly, lets go back to the mission center! We'll break the record for capturing Tora!" hearing the urgency in Anko's voice they complied as they made their way back to the office.

Doors opening once more, Iruka looked up to team 10 entering the room, carrying a cat in with them. Quickly looking down at his watch to notice that it has only been fifteen minutes, he just stared in awe how the team obliterated the highest held time. "Congratulations on completing your first D-rank," welcomed the Hokage, "we will take Tora off your hands and you'll be free to go." quickly filling out the paperwork, the team once again made their way out of the office, this time to split up for the day. Anko and Naruto were walking towards their home, but Anko decided to go to the dango shack for a quick snack, noticing Kakashi and Kurenai already there, she walked over and greeted them, "Hey guys, I heard you two also got placed with teams." Kakashi sighed as planted his forehead onto the table, "I take it your team is not that great?" she asked as she sat down next to Kurenai, "I have a spoiled brat and two of his fangirls, I don't think you can get much worse than that." Anko simply laughed at the man's misfortune, "I got a decent team, Shino is quiet but seems to know what he is doing, Kiba is a little brash but also seems to be able to pull his weight, the only one I'm worried about is Hinata, she awfully shy." Anko hmm-ed as she reached for a stick of dango, consuming all of the heavenly treats in one bite, she turned to face the two, "I think I got the best team ever." Kakashi looked up to listen in, "I have my little sister, a non-lazy Nara, and a Akimichi that can think of something besides food." the two others just stared in awe, "thats like a gold mine of a team, its almost as if you found a limited edition signed copy of Icha-Icha Heaven." Kakashi simply left his body on earth as he drifted up to heaven just thinking about it, Anko and Kurenai were quickly trying to hide their blushes and nosebleeds, not wanting to show any signs of reading something like that. After another hour the three parted ways for the night.

-/ Moonlit meadow /-

"Tou-san!" Naruto shouted as she ran over to the man sitting at a table, jumping into his arms, "Naru-hime, I have something to discuss with you." Naruto turned up to look at her father curious gaze setting in, "It involves what I'm going to teach you next." the girl nodded and sat down next to her father, "I've decided to start teaching you Fuuinjutsu." Naruto's face lit up in a smile at the thought, "that would be so cool!" she squealed, "quiet kit, I'm trying to get some sleep over here." announced Kurama as he rolled over in the grass, earning a few laughs of the two blonds, "anyways, I'll begin teaching next time you come here, for now you should go to sleep." Minato said placing a hand on his daughter's head, rubbing her ears like a cat. She nodded and slowly faded out of the realm, Minato walked over to the table and reached under it to pull out a golden book, titled "Icha-Icha Heaven" flipping through he let out a few giggles with a little blood seeping out of his nose.

-/ Mission Center, one month later /-

In only a month, team 10 managed to complete a total of 40 D-ranked missions, holding the record for most missions finished in a month, entering the room, they were greeted by the Hokage and Iruka, "ah team 10, welcome, we have a few missions available today," Anko walked over to the desk to notice they were all D-ranked missions, "actually, I was thinking of letting my team on a C-ranked mission." Placing his pipe in his mouth and turned to the genin of the group, "well, do you think you are ready for a C-ranked?" he asked them, Naruto gave her thumbs up in a 'Nice-Gai' pose, Shikamaru and Choji nodded in agreement, "very well, send in Tazuna." The door opened to a large man with gray haired man holding a bottle of sake, "I asked for a escort and all I get is a few runts?" he asked, slurring his words bringing up his bottle to take another swig, but before he could do that he felt cold steel against his neck. Naruto was on his back holding three senbon against the man's neck, leaning in to whisper into his ear, "I wouldn't insult the people who are protecting you." drawing a bit of blood with the senbon, she lifted them off his neck and licked the bloodied ends, "get him to detoxify himself before we take him, he has too much alcohol in his blood." Anko laughed at her little sister's scene, "I taught her well" "meet at the front gate in an hour, pack for a two weeks." the team quickly made their way out of the room dispersing to reconvene at the front gates.

An hour later, the team regrouped, they made their way towards Nami no Kuni. After three days of travel the team met up with a ferryman who took them across the water. A dense fog rolled in as they got closer to the Island, "Its so hard to see." said Choji as they made their way through, "keep quiet, we don't want to get any attention." replied Anko in a quiet voice, but she too was soon distracted by the entrance of a large bridge, "woah" was the simple notion going through the Konoha members, "Thats my bridge" announced Tazuna as they made their way to the shore, "Good luck Tazuna." said the ferryman as he disappeared back out into the fog, the team took their formation, Naruto at point, Choji and Shikamaru to the sides and Anko in the back. The team made their way Tazuna's house with no problems, opening the door the the house they were greeted by a beautiful woman names Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, as well as a boy named Inari, Tazuna's grandson. "Welcome, I can't thank you enough for doing this for us." the woman greeted the Konoha ninja, "It doesn't matter, they're just going to die." the young boy said before running off to his room. A usual 'troublesome' was heard from the Nara boy before they moved into the house to sit around the dining table and discussed their plans. For the next few days they would be going through shifts, Anko and Choji for one day and then Shikamaru and Naruto would go together for the next to accompany the bridge builder. The next two days went without incident and the two groups were eating dinner together, "Why, Why do you guys bother to try so hard? You'll just end up dead!" shouted a crying Inari, "You're only going to die! you don't even know how hard life can be and you just sit around laughing!" The room was quiet for a few seconds before Naruto looked at the young boy, cold blue eyes with a shade of indigo, feral slit pupils glaring down, "Shut it." she said in a low tone before leaving the table, "Sorry, I've lost my appetite, I'm going for a walk." The door quickly shut behind her leaving a stunned group, Anko quickly looked over to Shikamaru and he replied with a nod before following after the girl out the door. "Choji, why don't you help Tsunami with the dishes." Anko suggested to him as she turned her attention back to the crying boy, "Kid, I don't mean to offend, but I doubt your life was worse than her's." she opened to the two who were left at the table. Anko began telling a small summary about the fox girl's past up until her breaking point, excluding the details that should be left in the past. Inari's cries slowly died down after hearing the girl's story, but Tazuna was simply wide-eyed, never has he heard such terrible living conditions, immediately he felt terrible for the young girl. "Why does she have to live like that?" the older man asked, "I'm afraid its not my place to tell, but she doesn't know either." she said with a sad smile before leaving the table up to the room.

-/ Outside, with Naruto /-

The girl was wandering through the forest, mindlessly looking around before she sat down at a nearby tree. Bringing her tail into her lap she looked up at the approaching boy, "You alright?" he asked, sitting down next to the girl, taking her hand in his own, "Yeah, just remembering some things." he nodded, knowing not to question the past, and turned to look up into the night sky through the trees. They sat like that for a while, peacefully in each other's presence before they made their way back to the house, getting rest for the last day of their mission.

-/ The next day, at the bridge /-

It was the last day in construction, and there has yet to be any confrontation with any threats. Since it was the last day before the team left, they all decided to accompany Tazuna to the bridge. Everything was going well until the group heard the steady 'clack' of a cane against the brick surface of the bridge. The group turned to see where the noise was coming from, a small man in a suit with a smug look on his face. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to stop you from finishing this bridge." the man said, "leave in peace and maybe I'll let you live." The team move to ready themselves against the small army of thugs that was gathered behind the man, Choji and Anko moved to position themselves in the front, Shikamaru moved to protect the bridge builder and crew, and Naruto shifted out of view into the shadows behind some of the building materials on the side. "And what if we chose to stay?" Anko asked of the man, "well, then my boys here might get to have some fun." the man replied. Anko's eyes narrowed as she looked through the crowd 'None of them have any chakra, so no ninja, these are just a bunch of thieves' deciding to go with a scare tactic, she bit her thumb and when through a few hand signs Kuchiyose no jutsu the summoning array grew below her hand in a few seconds before a cloud of smoke revealed a large blue snake with Anko stand on the top, "I think my friend was hungry, you boys will make a nice snack!" she said with a large grin. As she planned, a large portion of the group ran away, not wanting to fight a giant snake, the rest were simply paralyzed with fear, not knowing that it was a genjutsu cast by Naruto that was binding them. "Baika no jutsu" Choji called out before transforming into a large ball that proceeded to plow through the stunned army from the left, the right was being eaten by Anko's summon. The battle was over within a minute, leaving most of the thugs unconscious on the bridge, the rest in the stomach of the snake which disappeared after having it's fill. "Heh, at least I don't have to pay them now" the man said facing Anko with a confident smirk on his face, "Let's just see if you were really worth hiring." he called out, leaving a confused look on team 10's faces, the three that were visible at least, Naruto was still hiding off in the shadows. But their suspicions were soon answered when two ninja flanked the man, both men had very standard ninja uniforms on, a black vest with a grey shirt underneath and black pants and sandals. Both had a cloth that covered their lower faces and headbands on their foreheads, the symbol of their village was a music note, 'Otogakure? I only heard news about them just recently forming, guess they need the money.' "Kill them." the short man ordered. "Shikamaru, Choji, switch!" Anko ordered, going through a few ANBU hand signs for Naruto 'Stay hidden, support when you can, aim to kill' Shikamaru flanked Anko "Ideas?" she asked of the boy, "let them take the first move, we still have the upper hand with Naruto on support." nodding in agreement they waited for the two to take their move. The one on the left turned his head to look at the second and nodded, rushing forward at the two, throwing a quick two kunai at Anko and Shikamaru, both of them splitting up to dodge the kunai, Anko moved forward going through hand signs Katon: Gōryūka no Jutsu Blowing a large fireball at the man, who attempted to dodge but noticed he had no ability to move. Screaming as the man was burnt alive the group looked back at the other man who simply stepped forward, Anko charged him but she quickly fell to the ground screaming in pain while grabbing her neck, 'Why now!' she thought, trying to fight back the progression of the curse mark. Naruto saw her sister fall and quickly made the decision to move in for the kill, vanishing she reappeared behind the man, already moving her hand down for the kill when she felt a pain in the stomach, but darkness soon followed as the man knocked her unconscious with a chop to her neck, he threw the body of the girl back at the team, "Sneaky brat." he mumbled throwing three Kunai after the girl.

Shikamaru's eyes widened in shock to see his best friend be taken out so quickly, but when he saw the two kunai following after her. Time slowed seemed to slow down as he reached for his tools pouch, thinking of ways to keep up the fight. His hands started to shake when he fumbled reaching through the pouch, but it was too late, he knew there was no way he could change the weapons off from their course. But then something caught his eye as he watched Naruto hit the ground...

There was a throbbing pain in her head when she lifted herself off the ground, she felt a hand on her shoulder as she turned to see whose it was, the bridge builder was talking to her but she heard no words, 'I thought I was over there' she turned to the spot where she was thinking of. Blood, it was the first thing she saw, but as her sight came into focus she saw Shikamaru kneeling over Choji, 'What's going on' she panicked, struggling to get herself up as she moved over to the two boys. Kneeling down in front of Choji she began to hear his voice, it was quiet, almost as if he was about to fall asleep, "Take care of her... Shikamaru..." he said, hearing those words she began to piece the scene together, the blood was Choji's, he had three Kunai dug into his chest. It was surreal, 'Why?' she asked "Why?" she asked out loud, but there was no response, but then they heard footsteps coming towards them, "Pity, he saves you but you're just going to die with him, he's already long gone, the poison is through his system." 'Gone...' she repeated in her head but then fear was replaced with anger, anger that this person took one of her few friend from her, her blood boiled as she stared into the careless eyes of older ninja, the man looked back at the young girl, the cold ice blue eyes stared back into his own, an unnatural chill went down his spine as the a killing intent crushed his ability to think, the eyes of the girl started to glow as their color shifted into a void and lifeless violet, pupils narrowed into slits as he looked into the eyes of a demon. Only one thing was going through his mind as he looked at her...

Run, his mind screamed, get far away from here, it seemed to say to him. In fear for his life, he followed his instincts, stumbling as he turned around he began to run for his life. "What the hell are you doing!" the businessman shouted at the ninja, "Kill them!" the oto-nin simply ignored him as he ran from the bridge, fleeing far away from those eyes. As the businessman turned back to the group the girl was standing in front of him, robes flowing in the wind, he looked up into her eyes. The glow from the eyes captivated him as his heartbeat quickened, his sight slowly gave way until all he could see were those demonic eyes of the girl, he could no longer hear, all the sounds were replaced with the beat of his heart, slowly increasing as the eyes seemed to stare right into his very own soul. But it all ended suddenly, a sickening snap as the man fell lifelessly to the ground. The woman standing behind him rushed over to embrace the girl in front of her, slowly running her hand through the girl's hair, "Its alright, everything is over, you're safe," she whispered into the fox ears of the girl, "You're safe, Naruto." hearing the slowed breathing of the girl she looked back to Shikamaru. A sudden wave of fear hit her as she looked down at the bloodied body of the boy, she picked up Naruto and ran over, "How is he?" she asked, placing Naruto next to the boy, but noticed the few tears streaming down the Nara's face. With a single shake of his head he fears were right, "No..." she mumbled looking down at the boy. With a heavy heart she reached over and closed the lifeless eyes of the boy as silent tears streamed down her face.

The storm has passed, but what ruins does it leave in its wake?

-/ A/N /-

This chapter took forever... and you can see as to a little bit of why, so yeah... stuff happened.

Read/review; new chapter soon, it shouldn't take me too long to write.

Next chapter: The Aftermath.


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